Month: September 2010

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun: Wrap Up

Now that the second season of D&D Encounters has drawn to a close it seems like a good time for a little reflection. First of all thanks are in order to all the folks at Wizards of the Coast for producing and distributing the adventure, thanks go to my FLGS, Dueling Grounds for hosting us, and of course thanks to all the players who showed up.

Fury of the Wastewalker offered a great introduction to the Dark Sun setting. Though it was too brutal and unkind for some people’s liking, it succeeded in setting the tone that people have come to expect from Athas, the world of Dark Sun. A lot of characters died, a lot.

I think this adventure will serve as the best campaign primer for any DM that wants to start a Dark Sun game in the city of Tyr. The adventure touched on many of Dark Sun’s themes, such as dying in the desert, dying in caves, dying in the jungle and being eaten by cannibals. By the end of it the party will have arrived in the city they sought for so long, ready to begin the campaign you have planned. Clever move Wizards, I see what you did there.

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Editorial Player Resources

7 Reasons I Hate Living Forgotten Realms

Living Forgotten Realms (LFR) is a series of organized game-play sanctioned by the RPGA. The “Living” in Living Forgotten Realms represents a framework for D&D games that allows players all over the world to participate in adventures using the same guidelines. Some people love LFR and others hate it. I happen to fall about as far into the hate it camp as you can get. Today I’m going to share 7 reasons I dislike LFR so much. But don’t worry, for those of you who enjoy LFR, Ameron will be providing the flip-side of this discussion on Friday when he provides 7 reasons that he loves LFR.

I originally wanted to call this article “Why I Hate Living Forgotten Realms: A Terrible Culture of Play” but I thought that might be too inflammatory. I also though it might lead some readers to believe that I’m suggesting everyone abandon LFR, which is absolutely not the case. This article is based on my personal experiences with LFR. It’s “Why I Hate LFR” and not “Why You Should Hate LFR” so keep that in mind when you leave your comments.

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DM Resources

Adventure Builder Workshop: Henchmen & Antagonists

If you’ve started to notice a trend of overlapping topics in the Adventure Builder Workshop series, today’s post will come as no surprise. Henchmen and Antagonists are closely related to the villain and there is bound to be some overlap. However, henchmen and antagonists are separate enough topic that they deserve their own post and place of discussion.

Your players will face off against the villain’s henchmen far more often than the villain himself, so it’s vital that you be prepared. Henchmen and antagonists is the fourth installment in our series inspired by the Adventure Builder Workshop run by Wizards of the Coast at this year’s GenCon. The previous posts discussed:

Today we’ll look at how henchmen and antagonists interrelate with these other aspects of adventure design.

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DM Resources

Adventure Builder Workshop: The Story

Story is the driving force behind any good movie. The movie can be loaded with action, special effects and an all star cast, but without a good story it falls flat. The same is true of your D&D campaign. You can craft the most intricate combat encounters, reward your players with the best treasure, but without a great story to tie it all together expect that your players may soon become bored and tired with the campaign.

This is the third instalment of the Adventure Builder’s Workshop that was held at GenCon this past August. The previous entries include information on the villain and creating locations.

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Player Resources

Character Creation Tips – D&D The Next Generation

Think of the most memorable characters that have made appearances at your gaming table over the years. Don’t let this trip down memory lane be restricted to just the characters you played. Think about all of the PCs that have made an impact to your D&D experience. Now assume that many years have past – enough that these characters have settled down and raised families. What is the next generation of heroes like?

I find that creating characters is one of the most exciting parts of D&D. However, creating a character from scratch presents the player with a lot of options. So many that the task can be overwhelming unless you have a good idea of what you want this character to be like before you open character builder. Once you have that initial idea or concept the rest of the process becomes a lot easier.

The next time you and your gaming group decide it’s time to build new characters why not create the next generation of D&D heroes? Think of all the characters that have graced your gaming table over the years. Now imagine what their children are like? You know the parents, how have they influenced and shaped who their kids became?

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 14)

With only two weeks left the excitement really started building. The PCs left the lush mountain foliage where the feywild crept into Athas and returned to the harsh desert environment more familiar to the PCs. With the sun setting on the horizon and long shadows reaching out towards the PC, they move hastily towards Tyr. As the party weaved in and out of the rocky outcroppings they heard a blood-curdling shriek followed by several others as if in response. The Wastewalkers most powerful allies were upon the PCs.

Our numbers continue dwindling. We were down to five this week. Again, I stepped up as the DM and ran the four adventurers through the penultimate encounter. The only pre-generated character in the party this week was Barcan. He was joined by three familiar faces, the Half-Orc archer Ranger, the Human Warlord (archer build) and the Minotaur Seeker. No defender and no strong melee characters. This was going to make for an interesting encounter.

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DM Resources

Adventure Builder Workshop: Location

Movies and television are great for portraying fantastic locations. I can still recall the sense of wonder I first felt when I saw the Argonath while watching The Fellowship of the Ring. With equal wonder I recall the first time I saw Naboo and the massive waterfall that cascaded away from the city. These two scenes fill me with wonder and a sense of adventure. Of course movies and television have the advantage of being primarily visual mediums. As a DM we use words more than visuals, this doesn’t mean we are limited in what locations we portray to our players. We are merely limited by our imaginations.

This is the second in a series that focuses on the Adventure Builder Workshop held at GenCon this past August. The first in the series focused on the villain, today we turn our attention to locations.

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DM Resources

Adventure Builder Workshop: The Villain

Every adventure has a purpose and more often than not that purpose is stopping the villain from completing their malevolent agenda. The central villain of an adventure is perhaps one of the most important design decisions a DM makes. If the appropriate time and effort is put into designing the villain, the rest of the adventure will form around him, creating memories you and your players will remember for years. However, if you don’t take the appropriate time to craft your villain you may find your adventure sessions shallow and lacking a clear sense of purpose.

What was the Fellowship without the evil of Sauron and the One Ring? Sherlock Holmes has Professor Moriarty as a nemesis and Batman has the Joker. All of these villains provided the requisite motivation to keep the hero working towards the success of his quest or mission.

This is part one of a series based on the Adventure Builder Workshop held at GenCon this year. Part one will focus on the villain, what you will receive in this series is a breakdown of the seminar that was led by Rodney Thompson from Wizards of the Coast. Earlier in August I posted a high level review of the Adventure Builder Workshop, what this series will do is go into much greater detail about the individual sections.

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Editorial Skill Challenges

The Challenge Of Writing Skill Challenges

While attending GenCon this year I had a eureka moment. Or to be more precise, the sky parted, a brilliant ray of light shone down, I turned to Ameron and said, “We’re already doing that!” This was in response to almost every hand in the room going up in the air when Bill Slavicsek asked if people wanted more skill challenges during the Dungeons & Dragons preview seminar.

At Dungeon’s Master we love skill challenges. We enjoy writing them, dreaming them up and talking about them. Our archive has over 30 skill challenges and many related articles for the community to use and adapt for their own campaigns.

The challenge that comes with writing a skill challenge for a general audience is how do we make it specific enough to be important, yet general enough that anyone can adapt it and use it? It’s a conundrum.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 13)

This week I was back behind the DM’s screen. We had a full party of six, three players using the pre-generated characters – Barcan, Phye and Castri – while the other three players brought their own PCs – the familiar archer Ranger (who died last week), the Human Warlord and a new Thri-kreen Fighter.

D&D Encounters is doing exactly what it was intended to do, bring in new players. Every week for the past four weeks we’ve had at least one player join D&D Encounters for the first time. Some of these players are 4e veterans who finally came out to see what all the fuss is about. Others are brand new to the hobby. Either way, it’s great to see some new faces coming out to play on Wednesday nights. Now if only we could keep the rest of the participants coming back. Having the new players is great, but we’re loosing members of our core group just as quickly. Our numbers have been holding between seven and nine since the beginning of chapter 2. I suspect that things will pick up again when the summer ends and we move on to Season 3.

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